Traffic at 6 p.m. Monday evening can be seen from the east bound side of the bridge trying to enter the westbound flow over the bridge from downtown. Contract workers with the Texas Department of Transportation this week are constructing new footings for the $58 million Neches River/Purple Heart Memorial Bridge replacement project. Eastbound bridge traffic was expected to be moved into westbound lanes of Interstate 10 later this month. Marc Shepherd, department spokesman, said Monday that the lane switch will probably not happen until early next year. According to Shepherd, crews are still awaiting contractors to begin the process of removing the eastbound lanes of the bridge. Until those contractors are in place, drivers will continue to use both sides of the bridge. Construction on the bridge, which serves 80,000 drivers a day, is expected to continue into the fall of 2015. The nearly 60-year-old bridge is being replaced because of an increasing number of potholes that transportation experts said would become a bigger problem in the future.Photo taken Monday, November 12, 2012 Dave Ryan/The Enterprise